Although I can certainly agree that it was not the finest way to end (or continue, maybe) the series, "Alien: Resurrection" no longer seems like such a misfire. In the years since I first saw the film, I've warmed up to it, appreciating some aspects of the picture more and finding some merits that I had overlooked.

One of the film's greatest choices was pulling in director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who had previously directed the eerie and fascinating "City of Lost Children". Although he had certainly never directed an action film of this scale, the director was able to bring that same vivid, surreal, European visual style to this production.

The film opens on a massive freighter drifting through space, 200 years after the prior film. Ripley (Sigorney Weaver) has been cloned from a drop of her own blood and lays, motionless, as doctors remove one of the familiar aliens from her womb. The doctors are part of a government research project that has been breeding the aliens to use them for research - vaccines, medicines, weapons - those kinds of things. This gives Ripley a grim chuckle: "She's a queen. She'll breed. You'll die."

A smaller ship arrives, bearing new cargo for the "project" and a new crew, including Call (Winona Ryder). The new ship's crew simply want a few days in less cramped quarters: they get a nasty surprise when the aliens figure out a rather clever way to escape from their quarters. The film then turns into a chase picture, as Ripley, Call and the rapidly decreasing amount of crew members try to find a way out.

The film's performances are both good and bad. Weaver's Ripley, no longer what she once was, has completely changed up the character, underplaying and bringing a new and highly enjoyable sense of menace to Ripley. Given that her character is supposed to be in some part alien, her alliance now becomes somewhat questionable. Ron Pearlman is also good as one of the crew members, but Dan Hedaya plays a rather cliche no-nonsense captain. The film's worst performance comes from Winona Ryder, who seems completely out-of-place in this production. She's not convincingly tough, and her performance seems shrill when she's trying to stand up to the other characters. It's simply a case of serious mis-casting.

The other star of the picture is the film's visual style, which adds atmosphere and, more importantly, some tension where there wasn't much to begin with - production designer Nigel Phelps and cinematographer Darius Khondji both do superb jobs. The film's action scenes - including a very good underwater chase - are also generally superb and entertaining.

Ah, but the story. There's not much depth or exploration of the "new" Ripley and once the chases begin, the (questionable) plot thread of doctors trying to study the aliens pretty much ends. The dialogue isn't great, either: there's a lot more one-liners than character development.

Overall, "Resurrection" is not a flawless film by any means, but it does boast some good performances, a strong visual style and a few mildly good scares. It hits the right notes several times, but its too bad that it couldn't have pulled things together more often.

The DVD offers both the film's "theatrical cut" and a new "extended cut" of the picture. The new edition comes with an introduction from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, explaining that the film that was in theaters was his "director's cut", but this new cut was produced to offer something new for fans. The differences aren't particularly major; there's a couple of extensions as well as an alternate ending and slightly new (and rather goofy - it offers a bad CGI bug splattering on a ship's windshield) opening. The alternate ending is interesting and worth watching, but I could do without the other additions. One can turn on a "deleted scenes" marker, which will show a small "special edition" logo during the new footage in the new cut of the film. The new cut is presented via seamless branching.